The present invention relates generally to an information processing apparatus, an information processing method, and a medium, and more particularly, to an information processing apparatus, an information processing method, and a medium which are adapted such that, by making a server execute processing corresponding to a two-dimensional bar code to be used in a shared manner, a plurality of terminals can acquire a same processing result for the two-dimensional bar code.
Bar codes are currently used in many industrial fields as a means for acquiring the identification information about products in an easy and secure manner. For example, in various wholesale/retail shops, products are identified from the bar codes attached thereon and the corresponding prices (stored in memory in advance) are read from a database to be displayed on a display unit.
In addition to the above-mentioned application in which products are identified and controlled based on the identification information read from code patterns, a more versatile application is currently proposed in which predetermined processing corresponding to code patterns are executed.
FIG. 16 is a schematic diagram illustrating a two-dimensional (2D) code processing system so-called “CyberCode” for executing processing corresponding to a two-dimensional bar code (hereafter referred to as a 2D code) previously proposed by the applicant hereof as the Japanese Published Unexamined Patent Application No. Hei10-184351.
“What we call “CyberCode” is Sony's unique two-dimensional code system that offers about 16.77 million different patterns (in 24 bits). Of these patterns, about one million patterns (in 20 bits) may be registered as desired for program start-up purposes. The remaining code patterns are reserved for future service expansion. “CyberCode” works as an index to what is represented by the code in question, the index allowing relevant information to be retrieved from computer storage. When a user starts a program through a new interface feature “CyberCode Finder,” the user finds that the corresponding information leaps from the object having the “CyberCode” onto the computer screen.”
In this example, an object 100 is a card shaped like a business card, a 2D code 101 being attached (or printed) thereon. The 2D code 101 is provided with a cell portion A and a logo portion B spaced from each other by one block in a rectangular range which is 9.5-block-high and 7-block-wide, taking one block as a unit as shown in FIG. 17. In the cell portion A of 7-block-high and 7-block-wide square, square cells are two-dimensionally patterned in the square range for forming a code pattern. It should be noted that, in correspondence to this code pattern, the identification number (hereafter referred to as a 2D code ID) of a 2D code represented by a 24-bit bit code is set.
In the logo portion B, a large rectangular cell having 1.5-block-high and 7-block-wide is arranged, in which the name of the object 100 or an advertisement mark (a logo) is written.
A 2D code associated program executing unit 201 reads the 2D code ID of the 2D code 101 from the image data of the 2D code 101 read by a bar code reader, not shown, and searches a local 2D code database 201A incorporated in the program executing unit to execute a program (hereafter referred to as a 2D code associated program) associated with the 2D code ID.
Like the 2D code associated program executing unit 201, a 2D code associated program executing unit 202 reads a 2D code ID from the image data of the 2D code 101 and searches a local 2D code database 202A to execute a 2D code associated program associated with the 2D code ID.
Thus, simply making the 2D code associated program executing units 201 and 202 read a 2D code can execute a 2D code associated program corresponding to that 2D code. However, because the 2D code associated program executing unit 201 or 202 is adapted to set any program in correspondence to any bar code, different programs are required to set to one 2D code in an associative manner and information (hereafter referred to as 2D code associated information) about the assignment between 2D code and program is not shared. Consequently, it is difficult to execute one session of processing for one 2D code between the 2D code associated program executing units 201 and 202.